CB for my Jeep

about 30 years ago I hooked up a 16 inch rubber ducky antenna to a ball mount on the roof of my 1970 Ford Ranchero and I talked about 15 miles to a base station

 

How did you achieve that? It sounds uncharacteristic of the setup.

 

I don't remember what kind of radio the guy on the receiving end had but I was in Santa Monica California and the other guy was in Silver Lake California on his base station in his apartment building.
I do remember not noticing much difference between my stainless steel whip and the little 16-inch rubber ducky antenna but I didn't exactly test it with other people.
Keep in mind Los Angeles is one big flat basin so on flat ground it's amazing how far your signal can propagate minimal effort.

 

I've tried one of those short rubber ducks, years ago, and never achieved more than about a mile range. Not saying it can't be done, just sayin' it would be a very unusual situation. I consider the WIlson Lil' Wil the minimum really effective antenna. Roof-mounted, they work better than the physics suggest they should, and you can generally get away with garaging them with only a few slaps and bangs. It goes without saying that something longer should work even better.

 

How it's mounted drastically affects how it works.
I screwed a three eighths Bolt directly into my antenna Specialists ball mount on the roof of my car and I put the Rubber Duckie right on The Bolt and I tightened the set screw.
It wasn't one of those hard rubber rubber ducky antennas it was the Radio Shack shiny flexible rubber ducky antenna with the set screw on it.

 

I use a magnetic Wilson 1000 on an F250 and a magnetic 35-inch K30 on my Mazda sedan, and they both do very well on the roofs. Naturally, the 1000 at 5-feet does better than the K30, but 5 feet is too much on the small sedan which goes into parking garages.

About the potential of getting water in the base load of the magnet antennas, I don't know if it's a real threat but I dab some stuff on where the stinger and the coax go into the base to keep any water out. The stuff I use is black silicone from a tube sold for making gaskets to seal such things as auto differential cases. It hardens into a flexible waterproof mass and sticks well..

 

If you're going to drill a hole in your roof you might as well use a puck mount and ditch the mag mount.

 

Sure, but it may involve dropping the headliner and the labor cost associated with doing that. I've thought about having that done on our Cherokee, but I need to have something like that done when we first buy a vehicle, not three years later and past halfway to the trading point.

 

Or hit up a cb/ham shop and get that tape thats moldable like puddy..Its black in color..I use it around most of my connection points to try an keep it water tight..